The following is Part 13 and the final installment of an open letter to Colonel Vaughn Doner and a critique of his 2012 book, Christian Jihad: Neo-Fundamentalists and the Polarization of America. Throughout the series, I address Colonel Doner in the second person, “you.” This book review is part of a series examiningChristian Postmodernism. In a few weeks, I’ll be offering the entire postmodernist series as a book that may be ordered in either paperback or in e-book format for download.

Dear Colonel Doner,

I know how postmodernists think because I was one all throughout my college years even though I did not know the term. I was a nominal Christian teenager who slowly became postmodernist through an immersion in liberal academic culture. Eventually, I rejected these values and converted to Christ. Then I began to understand that Christianity was more than just a personal experience of salvation, but included the renewing of the mind through a self-conscious biblical ethic resulting in a total biblical worldview.

In my experience, uncertainty on moral issues led to self-centeredness, isolation and depression. The Gospel, on the other hand calls us to deny ourselves and take up the cross. It is in this crucifixion of our sinful desires that we experience true joy. Then the love for God that results out of this freedom overflows into the world around us. It is this leaven of the Gospel that will one day fill the whole world (Matthew 13:33).

There were some clues along the way as to exactly why the postmodernist system of ethics (or lack of one) was a dead end. “Civility,” which you mention in your book, became an official policy at my university in the mid-1980s. The term “civility” was a precursor to the idea of multiculturalism and politically correct speech. The original use of the term referred to training in the humanities. In all liberal arts classes, we were supposed to be for racial equality, tolerance and diversity, and not allowed to express hatred towards others, or to incite hatred based on race, gender, class, sexual orientation or origin. So far so good. As a new Christian working to get a teacher’s certificate, I could agree with that. I certainly also wanted to go along with the program and be successful in my field.

Then something odd happened on my journey to this brave new world of multiculturalism. My first encounter with this contradiction occurred in an “Education for Cultural Understanding” class in which we were taught that a classroom teacher ought not try to “indoctrinate” his students with teachings on morals and ethics. (Note that throughout this book I purposefully avoid the “gender-neutral” rule in defiance of my “multicultural” training.) I had become a born-again believer about a year earlier. I realized the naïve impossibility of this statement intuitively. In a class discussion, I used the example of the holocaust.

“Do you mean to tell me that I should not tell my students that I believe the holocaust was morally wrong? Do you mean to say that I should not tell my students that the killing millions of innocent people in gas chambers and using them for medical experiments was not wrong?” I asked my fellow classmates.

Immediately a lively debate began to erupt and my professor, who was Jewish, wisely stopped the conversation. He said that I was correct in showing that it is impossible not to make moral statements. However, we had to be prepared as teachers to deal with the consequences when our morality conflicted with that of the students and their parents.

Some belief propositions are mutually exclusive. Using the holocaust as an example, there was simply no room for accommodation or “civility” in a discussion with someone who truly believed that the Jews were the Untermensch (subhumans) and Hitler’s Endlösung (Final Solution) was sound civil policy. Of course, it would have been risky to oppose such a policy as a German in the days of the Third Reich. However, I am convinced that in coming centuries, if not decades, people will look back at the abortion issue with the same disdain that they now have for Nazi eugenics. In fact, they will rightfully recognize that that are two sides of the same coin.

Years later, when I discovered Van Til, I immediately began to understand his point that there is no such thing as a morally neutral statement from a biblical presuppositionalist viewpoint. This is the reason why civility, multiculturalism, pluralism, politically correct speech, or whatever we want to call it, cannot solve the problem of the culture war. In reality, there is no neutrality. A purely “democratic” solution just represents the transition of one dominant worldview to another. We don’t end up with a tolerance for a wide range of social mores, but rather the enforcement of one group’s ethics over another.

Newspeak Runs Amok

Throughout the next few years, critics noticed that the verbiage of politically correct speech was hollow and resembled more of an Orwellian “Newspeak” than a meaningful attempt at the reform of intolerant behavior.

By the early 1990s, the “campus cultural wars” erupted in places like Harvard University. When a conservative student publication, Peninsula, ran articles calling to bring the topic of homosexual politics into open debate, the magazine issue was characterized as “hate speech” by several school administrators. To make matters worse, a “homophobic slur” was scrawled as graffiti on the door of a gay student’s dorm room shortly after the magazine issue appeared. Practically every campus newspaper entered into the debate with full abandon.

Christian students felt further intimidated when a “professor of Christian morals” openly condemned Peninsula’s articles as “wicked writing,” and also publicly acknowledged his own homosexuality. In the end, the contradiction of having a university policy that “does not discriminate” was exposed by Christian students who were willing to stand up and take the verbal abuse of being labeled as “homophobic” by the school administration.

There is a homosexual community that promotes a political agenda and a Christian community that believes homosexual behavior is a serious sin. Public policy cannot simply allow both ideas freedom of expression in the name of neutrality and pluralism. Government policy, whether on the campus or at the national level, will always choose one over the other. Politically correct speech in reality is not about tolerance and respect. It is about enforcing the revolutionary mores of the 1960s as the new cultural norm.

Since university life is a microcosm of our greater society, the effect was to quash the “politically correct” movement and expose it for its own hypocrisy. A few months after the controversy, Roger Landry, who was one of the conservative students at Harvard who launched the anti-P.C. publication Peninsula, said:

P.C. has already been thrown out the windows by most Northeast schools. We were hit by P.C. before everyone else. Among students here, people are so sick and tired of the arguments. After a few issues of Peninsula and the debate in the national press, most people have admitted that the issue is ridiculous. Eventually P.C. will lose its steam everywhere.

The Hubris of False Humility

Attempts by the liberal social activists and theologians, such as Jim Wallis, Stephen Carter and Richard John Neuhaus, to promote a “Covenant of Civility” or a “Neutral Public Square” are not in reality attempts to make opponents in the culture war more “civil” to each other. It is rather an attempt to get conservatives to capitulate to the liberal point of view.

So when an erstwhile respected voice such as Os Guinness writes, “Civility is a key not only to civil society but to civilization itself,” I have to laugh. Here is a pious sounding platitude that says nothing and means nothing. I had to check to see if this tautology was not taken out of context. But there it was as the concluding line from a chapter in Guinness’ book, The Case for Civility: And Why Our Future Depends on It.

Here is yet another case of a thoughtful, intelligent man missing the forest for the trees. Here is yet another attempt to try to appear more acceptable in the world’s eyes than “fundamentalist” Christians who are more strident in their forays into the culture war. In reality, what Guinness is saying is “our civility ought to appear more civil than their civility.” The ruse that Christian postmodernists often use is to appear to be more humble than both their opponents and those “intolerant” Christians. I call this the “hubris of false humility” syndrome. That is unfortunately what has happened to many who have tried to refute postmodernism. Os Guinness has imbibed some of the froth from the strange brew of his opposition.

Postmodernism is a false middle way. Any attempt to try to make sense out of something that is in its nature nonsensical or to compromise with its ideals that mimic Christian ethics, just leads to another form of postmodernism – to move forward without going back to a foundation of certain truth – or what some have called a post-post-modernism. (I am really not kidding, look it up if you don’t believe there is such a thing.)

Humanism in its Death Throes?

I am convinced that one of the reasons we are seeing a more strident attack on Christianity in recent years is that Western humanism is in its death throes, much like its Eastern cousin, Soviet Communism experienced over 20 years ago. Since the seeds of destruction are always sown into the foundation of any false worldview, what we are seeing is the rattling of humanism’s support structure.

You make a big deal throughout your book about “distrusting presuppositions.” I would be inclined to agree with you if you would modify that to “distrusting faulty presuppositions.” Without presuppositions, linear thinking would not even be possible. I experience a dizzying bout of déjà vu when you ask, “Can we start by embracing the reality that pluralism is here to stay, please?” I’ve heard that argument from the militant pro-abortion advocates almost to the letter. “Can we start by embracing the reality that a woman’s right to choose is here to stay, please?” Pluralism is a smokescreen for a leftist agenda. When someone says, “A woman’s right to choose is here to stay!” or “Abortion is murder!” neither is a pluralistic proposition. The “national consensus” you propose will always choose one and suppress the other.

You wrongly believe that the culture war is unwinnable in the long run. On the contrary, the side that appeases first is the side that will lose. Winston Churchill demonstrated an all too tragic example of this when he called out Neville Chamberlain’s appeasement of Hitler, “An appeaser is one who feeds a crocodile hoping it will eat him last.”

Realistically, you must intuitively understand that you cannot appease two worldviews that are both bent on world dominion – Western humanism and historic Christianity. In reality, what you are proposing is not an end to the culture war, but a strategy to defeat both sides with a “third way.” However, you can’t win the culture war with nice-sounding, feel-good, idealistic, vacuous nonsense. Or as Gary North has repeatedly said, “You can’t beat something with nothing.”

One of the things that amused me about hearing R.J. Rushdoony speak was that before critiquing worldviews that carried the seeds of their own destruction, he would sometimes summarize the philosophy with the phrase, “That’s nonsense!” He would always say it with such a tone and emphasis that you got the meaning that “nonsense” is that which makes no sense.

A Light That is Darkness

Jesus’ parables about salt and light say much the same thing.

“You are the salt of the earth; but if the salt loses its flavor, how shall it be seasoned? It is then good for nothing but to be thrown out and trampled underfoot by men. You are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do they light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a lampstand, and it gives light to all who are in the house. Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven” (Matthew 5:13-16).

These are well known Bible verses. However, it always struck me as strange that Jesus would use the metaphor of the salt losing its flavor. Of course, salt is pure sodium chloride, NaCl, it cannot lose its flavor. It cannot become either more salty or less salty. It either is salt or is not salt. The same is true for light. There is also a companion verse later in the Sermon on the Mount that drives home the point.

“The lamp of the body is the eye. If therefore your eye is good, your whole body will be full of light. But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in you is darkness, how great is that darkness!” (Matthew 6:22,23).

How can there be a light that is darkness? While there are different degrees of light, there is no such thing as a light that is darkness. Here Jesus is driving home a point. The truth and righteousness that is in us as Christians is so powerful that it cannot be compromised. What postmodern Christianity tries to do is reduce the certainty of that light and truth to make it more palatable to a “postmodern generation.” But according to Jesus, it cannot be done. Light and darkness cannot coexist. Truth cannot be made less certain. A Christian must ultimately stand for Light and Truth.

Your comments are welcome!

The Abortion Matrix: Defeating Child Sacrifice and the Culture of Death (DVD)

Is there a connection between pagan religion and the abortion industry?

This powerful presentation traces the biblical roots of child sacrifice and then delves into the social, political and cultural fall-out that this sin against God and crime against humanity has produced in our beleaguered society.

Conceived as a sequel and update to the 1988 classic, The Massacre of Innocence, the new title, The Abortion Matrix, is entirely fitting. It not only references abortion’s specific target – the sacred matrix where human beings are formed in the womb in the very image of God, but it also implies the existence of a conspiracy, a matrix of seemingly disparate forces that are driving this holocaust.

The occult activity surrounding the abortion industry is exposed with numerous examples. But are these just aberrations, bizarre yet anomalous examples of abortionists who just happen to have ties to modern day witchcraft? Or is this representative of something deeper, more sinister and even endemic to the entire abortion movement?

As the allusion to the film of over a decade ago suggests, the viewer may learn that things are not always as they appear to be. The Abortion Matrix reveals the reality of child-killing and strikes the proper moral chord to move hearts to fulfill the biblical responsibility to rescue those unjustly sentenced to death and to speak for those who cannot speak for themselves (Proverbs 24:11,12; 31:8,9).

In the Days of These Kings (Book)

Perfect-bound Paperback — 740 pages

The Book of Daniel in Preterist Perspective

“And in the days of these kings shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom, which shall never be destroyed: and the kingdom shall not be left to other people, but it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand for ever” (Daniel 2:44).

The overarching message of Daniel is that Jesus the Messiah is even now ruling over the nations. He is the King of kings. Daniel tells us that Messiah’s kingdom will advance in the whole world from “generation to generation” (Daniel 4:4,34). Christ’s dominion is “given to the people of the saints of the most High” (Daniel 7:22). Our purpose then is to see “all people, nations, and languages … serve and obey him” (Daniel 7:14,27).

This comprehensive work offers a fascinating look at the book of Daniel in preterist perspective. Great attention is paid to the writings of ancient and modern historians and scholars to connect the dots and demonstrate the continuity of Daniel’s prophecy with all of Scripture.

Frank Schaeffer Will You Please Shut Up! (Book)

High Quality Paperback — 200 pages

A Reasonable Response to Christian Postmodernism

Includes a response to the bookChristian Jihadby Colonel V. Doner

The title of this book is a misnomer. In reality, I am not trying to get anyone to shut up, but rather to provoke a discussion. This book is a warning about the philosophy of “Christian postmodernism” and the threat that it poses not only to Christian orthodoxy, but to the peace and prosperity our culture as well. The purpose is to equip the reader with some basic principles that can be used to refute their arguments.

Part 1 is a response to some of the recent writings by Frank Schaeffer, the son of the late Francis Schaeffer. This was originally written as a defense against Frank’s attacks on pro-life street activism – a movement that his father helped bring into being through his books, A Christian Manifesto, How Should We Then Live? and Whatever Happened to the Human Race? These works have impacted literally hundreds of thousands of Christian activists.

Part 2 is a response to Colonel Doner and his book, Christian Jihad: Neo-Fundamentalists and the Polarization of America. Doner was one of the key architects of the Christian Right that emerged in the 1980s, who now represents the disillusionment and defection many Christian activists experienced in the 1990s and 2000s. There is still great hope for America to be reformed according to biblical principles. As a new generation is emerging, it is important to recognize the mistakes that Christian activists have made in the past even while holding to a vision for the future.

Dr. Francis Schaeffer - A Christian Manifesto (DVD)

That Swiss Hermit Strikes Again!

Dr. Schaeffer, who was one of the most influential Christian thinkers in the twentieth century, shows that secular humanism has displaced the Judeo-Christian consensus that once defined our nation’s moral boundaries. Law, education, and medicine have all been reshaped for the worse as a consequence. America’s dominant worldview changed, Schaeffer charges, when Christians weren’t looking.

Schaeffer lists two reasons for evangelical indifference: a false concept of spirituality and fear. He calls on believers to stand against the tyranny and moral chaos that come when humanism reigns-and warns that believers may, at some point, be forced to make the hard choice between obeying God or Caesar. A Christian Manifesto is a thought-provoking and bracing Christian analysis of American culture and the obligation Christians have to engage the culture with the claims of Christ.

The Real Jesus: A Defense of the Historicity and Divinity of Christ (DVD)

Who is the Real Jesus?

Ever since the dawn of modern rationalism, skeptics have sought to use textual criticism, archeology and historical reconstructions to uncover the “historical Jesus” — a wise teacher who said many wonderful things, but fulfilled no prophecies, performed no miracles and certainly did not rise from the dead in triumph over sin.

Over the past 100 years, however, startling discoveries in biblical archeology and scholarship have all but vanquished the faulty assumptions of these doubting modernists. Regrettably, these discoveries have often been ignored by the skeptics as well as by the popular media. As a result, the liberal view still holds sway in universities and impacts the culture and even much of the church.

The Real Jesus explodes the myths of these critics and the movies, books and television programs that have popularized their views. Presented in ten parts — perfect for individual, family and classroom study — viewers will be challenged to go deeper in their knowledge of Christ in order to be able to defend their faith and present the truth to a skeptical modern world – that the Jesus of the Gospels is the Jesus of history — “the same yesterday, today and forever” (Hebrews 13:8). He is the real Jesus.

The Abortion Matrix:
Defeating Child Sacrifice and the Culture of Death is a 195-minute presentation that traces the biblical roots of child sacrifice and then delves into the social, political and cultural fall-out that this sin against God has produced. You can order this series on DVD, read the complete script and view clips on-line...continued ...